Variable X
by Writer is Ninja
Summary: Astrid McKay is betrothed to Remus Lupin at a young age. Yet can she find love with him? Maybe. She’s bound to find adventure, at any rate, with the Marauders running around Hogwarts. RemusOC. AU.
1. Actions and Reactions

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the nouns within except Astrid McKay and her parents.

A/N: Did you know that MS Word does not believe in the awesome power of the word "neah"? Well, _neah_ to MS Word! No, come back! I have to type my fan fic!

Summary: Astrid McKay is betrothed to Remus Lupin at a young age. Yet can she find love with him? Maybe. And with the Marauders afoot she's _bound _to find adventure. A/U.

_Variable X_ – Chapter 1, _Actions and Reactions

* * *

_

_Says she who's heart has never failed her,_

_Willows whisper on the winds_

_Says he who's heart is one with her's,_

_The story now begins

* * *

_

Astrid McKay snuck up the stairs and away from another of her parents' stuffy parties. Sure this was her birthday party, but it was more a business affair. Were any of her friends there, or at least kids her age? No. Only people her parents knew; friends and business associates. The only one she could stand was a man who asked to be addressed as Uncle Ray, and he was halfway through the punchbowl by now. It was for Astrid that he stayed, really, but now he was too busy hitting on the defense expert for her father's business chain, Jessica Lawrence, to notice that Astrid had left.

That was the way that Astrid wanted it, too. She could sneak around unnoticed now, while Ray was busy trying to pick up the lonely widow Jessica (Who happened to be a _sort of_ friend of hers, since she was one of the few honest and un snob-like people involved in Astrid's father's businesses).

She riffled through the draws in her father's study, a place she was not allowed to be. That had never mattered to Astrid; she was always into some trouble or another, and was fairly good at not getting caught. She then moved onto her father's desk.

"Business Affairs, Business Affairs II, Family Affairs/Will... _Ha!_ Like _I _care. An unmarked draw, hmmn? Well, only way to find out is to open it and see."

Computer paper, formal pictures... blah, blah, blah... Ah, wait! An envelope. It was very thick, as if it held more than one letter. And so it did.

_Fifth of July, 1971_

_I know that this is an unusual arrangement, Astrid being so... well... being so like herself, as it were, but the Lupins have a son my daughter's age and we both need to keep our family lines flowing. He's only one year, maybe two, older than my daughter; a quiet yet determined young man. Despite young Monsieur Lupin having been afflicted with the unfortunate disease of lycanthropy at the tender age of four years, he seems to know what he is doing in regards to the best interests of his family and my own. We've found a place for young Monsieur Lupin to lock himself in during those rare dangerous nights when he is not fully safe to be around. The boy's father, Richard, a very close friend of mine, and his mother, Chandelle, who is very close to Loraine, are the nicest people one could ever meet, and I doubt that a son of theirs could be any different. Yes, once my Astrid and young Monsieur Lupin meet, this betrothal will go over very nicely. My daughter may be only ten years old now, but once she's sixteen and of age to marry... I can already tell she'll be going to Hogwarts like I did. I do hope that she and Remus can get along well enough._

_They should meet at Hogwarts; I've no doubt about that. I would rather like for my daughter to be in Ravenclaw, but Remus' House, Gryffindor, should be enough for my daughter. She certainly has an outgoing nature, not all unlike the other Gryffindors. _

_Though she's cunning, my Astrid, and her being in Slytherin might make things a bit difficult. I don't think Astrid trusts people enough to be in Hufflepuff, having seen some of how my business partners act, although I could always be wrong. Even for a ten-year-old, though, my Astrid is tough. I try to do what's best for my daughter. I can only hope that I'm doing the right thing. I'll tell her of this when she's older. Yes, when Astrid is older she'll understand my reasons for doing this._

_Cordially,_

_David McKay_

So I'm tied down already. I can't get out of a _betrothal agreement_! Goodness sake, I don't even know who this Remus Lupin is! I've met Richard and Emily, yes, and if he's as stuck up as they are I don't think I _want_ to know him. How can father do this to me? I want to be free, to live the writer's life, to fall in love. Can't my father _see_ that?

Doing what's best for me? The man doesn't even know me, hasn't even _tried _to _get to know_ me! How could father ever know what's best for me? My father, doing what he thinks is best for anyone but himself? Ha! _That's_ laughable. More like doing what's best for business.

She put the letter back where she found it in the draw, leaving the room silently and slipping into her bedroom. She pulled out her hairclip, letting her thick, shiny ringlets of hair fall down to her back. The brown/red hair fell down in waves, and she pulled out a book to stop from dwelling on her father's _audacity_. Trigonometry; she hated math, but it served her purposes well enough for the moment. She could get lost in the simplicity of the never-ending equations or expressions and forget all her problems for the moment. It was all the same. There was either an outcome or there wasn't, and she didn't really care either way.

Astrid was the variable x. Her reaction meant everything now. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Well, father, I'll meet this Remus Lupin and we'll see how it goes. In time, you'll see how I react.

There was silence, except for the scratch of her pen on paper (and the buzz of talk filtering up from downstairs), for a while, before she was interrupted.

"Whatcha doin' love?"

She jumped slightly. Ray stood leaning in the doorframe, hands in his pockets.

"I'm just reading rereading my math book, actually. So, are you leaving with Ms. Jessica Lawrence tonight?" she teased, then continued on seriously, "She's not a bad catch, you know, except for being a bit paranoid."

Ray was the only party guest I'd actually invited myself. He was a nice enough guy. He hung out at bars, mostly, drowning his sorrows in the bottle, looking for some person, anybody, to fill up the void left when his wife picked up with his three kids and disappeared, never to be seen again. He was a good guy, though, even if I could tell he sometimes thought he wanted me. He was a lonely man.

"Yeah, just thought I'd say happy birthday before I go. You'd better put your hair back up before your father comes. He's looking for you."

"_Damn!_ Thanks, Uncle Ray."

"No problem, kiddo." And like that, he was gone.

I put my hair back carefully into its clip and went back downstairs to rejoin my party. My party. Mine. Huh, didn't look much like it belonged to me.

"Father," I smiled sweetly. "One of the guests said that you were searching for me?"

I wanted to gag, choke on the very air I breathed, but I couldn't. Not in public, where anyone could see. If I wanted to throw up, it could wait. Once, when I was eight years old, I had been very sick. I'd had pneumonia, and couldn't eat for fear of my throat aching. I'd had trouble swallowing even grape juice or water, and the noodles of chicken noodle soup wouldn't even go down. You are _not_ supposed to throw up when you have pneumonia, but _I_ did. My father had forced my mother and I to attend a business dinner with him, I remember clear as day.

"_David, can't you see she's sick? She can't even eat!" my mother whispered frantically to my father. He looked at me across the table._

"_Eat your food, Astrid," he whispered harshly._

_I ate all my food, feeling it burn as it touched my throat, and as I swallowed my throat swelled with pain. I then excused myself, and threw up everything I'd eaten in the Langs' toilet. My throat was raw, and I helped myself to some codeine cough syrup in the cabinet when I was done throwing up the hard prepared meal Mrs. Lang had cooked. I felt a bit bad, as the meal really had tasted well, but It was much better going down than coming up, and I couldn't help it if my body felt like regurgitating everything that went into it as well as to have pneumonia. I came back downstairs._

"_Excuse me. Mrs. and Mr. Lang? I'm not feeling very well at all, and was wondering if you might have some aspirin. I wouldn't ask, it's just that my head is pounding and..."_

_And whatever I was going to say next I have no idea, because at that very moment I fainted. When I woke up my father was looking down at me sternly, and he yelled at me for ruining the business dinner. He was so angry. My mother tried to hold him back, calm him down, but that made him even angrier. He slapped me, and I've hated my father ever since that day. Looking at what he'd done, he walked straight out of the room. My mother tried with false platitudes. "He didn't mean it." "It's all right." "He'll be back in a few minutes to apologize." But we both knew it was too late to apologize, him and I._

Happy _freaking _birthday to me.

* * *

End Chapter 1, Actions and Reactions, of _Variable X_. 


	2. Son of Candle's Light

Disclaimer: None of the nouns within belong to me except for Astrid McKay.

A/N: I went back and changed a few minor things in chapter one. The poetry at the top of that is mine. Chandelle is French for candle, and Sarita is a Spanish (I think) version of Sarah. I go to _ets freetranslation com/_ (add in a dot where the spaces are) to get things in other languages, but if someone doesn't take this fic over from me the other languages I use will be translated at the end of each chapter.

Summary: Astrid McKay is betrothed to Remus Lupin at a young age. Yet can she find love with him? Maybe. And with the Marauders afoot she's _bound _to find adventure. A/U.

_Variable X_ – Chapter 2, _Son of Candle's Light_

"Lumos."

* * *

Remus Lupin, son of Richard and Chandelle Lupin, was sitting out in the gardens, reading as per usual. Without other kids his age nearby there wasn't much to do but stand around reading all day, so he had become a bit of a loner. Remus had been very surprised, therefore, when he had found that people wanted to be friends with him. After all, Remus wasn't just a loner, but a werewolf, a dark creature, as well, not that his friends knew. It wasn't that they weren't good friends, but even if they still accepted him they might tell someone, and gossip fed Hogwarts. Other kids were bound to tell their parents, and then he'd have to leave and be schooled at home, and he'd hate to do that when he'd just made friends for the first time in his entire life. Having thought this, Remus got up to owl the friends he had made in his first year at Hogwarts. On the way to his room, however, he heard raised voices, and came to an involuntary stop outside of the kitchen door.

"… needs to be told, Richard! We can't just throw them together, say 'be friends' and leave it at that! It would be a disaster, I guarantee it!" his mother yelled.

"Chandelle, please, calm down. Remus is only eleven. He hardly needs to know about the betrothal agreement yet. Let him have a few years to date, and _then_ we can tell him about Astrid. How does that sound, dear?" he asked, obviously trying to placate his wife.

"Fine," the woman snapped at him, "but you're the one who gets to break the _happy news_ to a fifteen or sixteen-year-old. He'll just be so happy that he can't get involved with any other people because _you_ don't want to break the family tradition."

Deciding he'd heard enough, Remus backed away from the door and went back to his room. He flopped onto the bed and lay there, staring up at the ceiling. Astrid… Who do I know with a name like that? It's pretty, though. Astrid…

A soft knock came at the door.

"Who's there?" Remus asked.

"It's Maman. May I come in?"

"Sure," he said. Why not, after all?

"How much did you hear?" the blonde asked, sitting beside him on the bed.

"Enough," he said.

Chandelle sighed, taking out a cigarette and lighting it with a quick incendio charm. This was only odd because she tried not to be in the same room as her children when she smoked. After a few drags, she began to speak.

"Her name is Astrid McKay and she's ten, eleven this August. She's a pretty little thing; curly auburn hair, dark blue eyes. Astrid is interested in action/adventure novels, potions, charms, and just about any type of music except disco. She plays the violin, guitar, and would like to learn how to play the piano someday. She's also easygoing, cheerful, fun to be around, and anything but shy. Astrid has five older brothers, you see. I think you will come to like her fairly quickly, Remus. She's a bit of a tomboy anyway."

"Do you really think I'll like her, or are you just saying that?" Remus asked.

Chandelle carded her fingers through her son's hair with a smile.

"I think you'll like her. Astrid will grow into a fine woman." She stood up. "I'll leave you alone to think." This wasn't the way she had wanted her son to find out.

The door closed softly behind her.

"Time to owl Lily and the guys."

Chandelle smile to herself, then went to make dinner.

* * *

"Hello Chandelle."

"Sarita! It's been _forever_!"

James rolled his eyes, and as one he, Remus, and Sirius muttered, "Women."

"Come on, let's go to my room. I have something important to tell you."

Several minutes later, exclamations of, "People still _do_ that?" and "You've got to _marry_ her?" came from Remus' room, and at the same time Sarita Potter and Chandelle Lupin said, "Boys." Then they shared a look and laughed.

"They must have been talking about the betrothal, earlier. I mean, honestly, I don't know why Richard insisted. He broke family tradition by marrying me. Why should a tradition that nearly tore us apart carry on? He didn't do this with the twins, and if he was going to you'd think that Richard would start with them." She was almost in tears.

"Shh, Chandelle," Sarita said. "It's all right. Arranged marriages can be love matches. It will turn out all right in the end. It will be all right. You'll see."

"You really think so?" she asked.

"Yes," Sarita told her with conviction. "Everything will be all right."

* * *

"Edward?" Sarita asked her husband across the dinner table.

"Yes, dear?"

"Do you know the McKays' daughter, Astrid?"

"Yes. Polite little girl, interested in her music; a bit of a tomboy though. She'll be a real heartbreaker in a few years time. Why do you ask?" he said conversationally.

"Do you think she be a good match for Chandelle and Richard's boy, Remus?"

"I'm sure they'd get along well enough. Why?"

"No reason, dear. Pass the potatoes please."

* * *

Remus, James, and Sirius sat up all night talking and watching the telly in Remus' room. They talked about all sorts of things: the betrothal, Hogwarts, Quidditch, pranks, James' small (cough not cough) obsession with Lily Evans. By the next morning it was pushed to the back of Remus' mind, and all was well, and chaotic, at the Lupin place once more. Well, what else would you expect, with three Marauders in one house?

* * *

"Nox."

Maman means Mama in French. You can find the translator I use in the a/n at the beginning of the chapter.


End file.
